Professional wrestling in Russia
Mid 20th Century 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s 1892 is considered the year when professional wrestling appeared in Russia, when Polish wrestler Vladislav Pytljasinski came to St. Petersburg.
[1] In 1897 Vladislav Kraevsky created the "St. Petersburg Athletic and Cycling Club", which trained professional wrestlers.
In July 1900, Hackenschmidt took part in a forty-day wrestling tournament in Moscow, making his first appearance as a professional in Russia.
Georg Lurich once persuaded the wrestler Osipov to paint himself brown and passed him off as the leader of an endangered Native American tribe.
Uncle Vanya invented Sarakiki, a Chinese pretending to be Japanese, which was in vogue after Russia's defeat in the war with Japan.
There were "noble beauties", who earned the audience's sympathy with their gentlemanly manners and fairness, and who would inevitably defeat the "beasts" at the end of the championship.
In the competitions were staged performances, which played on human feelings, capable of touching the heart of the then viewer.
To arouse interest resorted to various tricks: started arguments in front of an audience, threatened each other with violence, hid behind the cheek swim bladder with red paint, which then poured faces.
And on the lowest step were wrestlers, who were contemptuously called "padding", those who by order of the director of the championship lost by pinfall.Circus historian Evgeny Kuznetsov writes: "...circus without championships became equally unthinkable both in the capital and in the provinces, where wrestling, which had completely lost its sporting character, took rude, punishing forms".
[3] On May 4, 1905, Hackenschmidt defeats American Tom Jenkins in New York City and became the first ever recognized world heavyweight wrestling champion.
[3] Some of this mirrored the cynicism about professional wrestling in the media of Western nations - in 1936 Pravda published a satire - "Where to go in one's spare time?
They represented the Soviet Union at WCW Starrcade 1990 in a national team tournament called the Pat O'Connor Memorial Cup.
On May 25, 1989, in Osaka, Hasimikov defeated Big Van Vader to win IWGP Heavyweight Championship.
In Europe, there was longtime French star Le Grand Vladimir, while Canadian Richard Krupa toured for the British Joint Promotions in 1987 as Red Ivan, teaming with "Comrade" McDonald.
[12] On August 9–11, 1994, three Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) shows were held at the Lenin Stadium in Khabarovsk, which attracted 600-1100 spectators each.
In 1998, for the first time in Russia, professional wrestling shows began to be broadcast on national TV channels.
[19] On April 11, 2012, WWE held its first Raw World Tour house show in Russia at the Luzhniki Palace of Sports.
[24][25] The announcers are Artem Davydov and a representative of the Independent Wrestling Federation (IWF) Mikhail Vakhneev.
In 2006, one of the IWF shows was attended by Shane McMahon, who was in Russia to negotiate the return of WWE to Russian television.
[28] At various times, professional wrestlers such as El Generico, Sonjay Dutt, Zema Ion and Matt Cross have appeared at IWF.
On September 20, 2015, the company's first major show, Battle on the Neva, was held at the Leningrad Palace of Youth, featuring former WWE superstar and two-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion Colt Cabana.
